The Fisk University Lady Gymdogs became the first Historically Black College or University to have a gymnastics team compete in an NCAA event. Currently in its first season, this historic season is going to be chronicled for a docuseries.
According to Deadline, filmmaker Deborah Riley Draper and independent studio wiip are collaborating to make Flipped, which will follow the Fisk University women’s gymnastics team. As Deadline describes the series:
Flipped (w/t) will follow college gymnastics’ only all BIPOC team as they navigate the pressures of their first season while challenging the stereotypes and norms in women’s athletics. With no university gym of their own, Coach Corrinne Tarver and her gymnastics team at Fisk University, consisting primarily of first-year college students, aim to take on the best in NCAA gymnastics without mitigating or changing who they are as women of color.
This is going to be more than following a team through their season or even about wins and losses. This is a look inside a college sports team at its origin. Not just that, it’s about a team that is forging new ground in the hopes of opening up the sport of gymnastics to others who didn’t think they could be a gymnast.
“This is the most aspirational coming-of-age sports story of the year. We have not seen this before and its happening in real time. My work as a filmmaker has always and will always be about unpacking and centering stories of extraordinary Black women as they navigate the intersection of race, gender, and class. Watching this unfold in gymnastics will be a blueprint and a lesson for equity and access,” said Riley Draper.
The Bulldogs started competing at the Super 16 gymnastics invitational last month and their first season concludes in April.
[Deadline/Photo: Fisk Athletics]
